BATMAN’S SURPRISE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 680, 4 June 1929, Page 11

BATMAN’S SURPRISE

OFFICER’S BATTLE VOW

Owing to an ex-soldier having left a London address, a communication intended for him was sent to the Dead Letter Office a year ago. Only a firm of inquiry agents knew the contents for that long period, and all the time a fortune of over £B,OOO awaited Louis James Wilde, of Cefn Forest, near Blackwood, Monmouthshire, a collier employed at a New Tredegar colliery (says the “News of the World”). Another letter was sent to the old address, in which the occupier was offered £l5O for information as to Wilde’s whereabouts. A prompt reply was forwarded, and, as a result, Wilde met at Newport the principal of the firm of inquiry agents. “At first,” says Wilde, “he bewildered me by asking if I remembered any outstanding incidents during the war, when 1 served in France with battalions of the Welsh Regiment. I could not remember anything particular except that I was wounded at Armentieres, and was in hospital five months before returning to the fighting line. “Next, I was asked if I remembered an officer whom the inquirer described, and I mentioned a short, dark officer. Lieutenant Griffith. ‘Do you recollect doing-any special kindness for him:’ came another question. “I then remembered that we were together in an engagement at Pilken Ridge, Ypres, when the officer was wounded in the right arm. I assisted him to the first aid post, and after his wound had been dressed he shook hands with me, saying ‘So long, Wilde; we may not meet again, but I will not forget you.’ Since that day I have neither seen him nor heard from him. At that point of the conversation the principal said: ‘I have a pleasant surprise for you. A sum of £5,563 has, I believe, been left to you by the officer in his will.’

“Since then two men have called at my house, and I expect to receive a cheque shortly.” Wilde is the eldest of a colliery family of six, four of whom are boys, and he himself has a wife and a son